Development using Software Quality Control Techniques of a Modern Application for the Shop Floor

Abstract

Traditional companies, such as Rolls-Royce, are heavily investing in the digitalization of their manual and analog processes. In the department of Assembly and Test, a good example of this type of process is the monitoring of jet engines production in the shop floor, which is done by in-person verification of the module builds, Excel spreadsheets and paper-based systems. These methods are intrinsically slow, inefficient and error prone. As a solution, the development of Shopino, a modern web application for monitoring and data visualization for the shop floor, was proposed. In order to lower costs and save time, the application was developed on top of an existing platform, called Engino. However, since Engino was not finished, it had to be improved and tested. For this purpose and to ensure that Shopino is a secure and high quality application, software quality control techniques were applied during the planning and development of the application. Furthermore, a Test-Driven Development methodology was used in combination with an agile methodology. As a result, a initial version of the application was implemented and integrated with two shop floor systems, which are responsible for inspecting the quality of the built modules in the shop floor. These integrations were made available in a very short time and, thus, created immediate value for the company. Moreover, reviews and all levels of automated tests were implemented, ensuring the quality of the software produced.